This event is the first in the public programme for Daylight Management, a sprawling network of artists, researchers, scientists, night-shift workers and union representatives initiated and led by artist Martin Kohout.

For this conversation, Kohout will be joined by writer and editor Dan Meththananda to explore the impact of night shift labour on personal and infrastructural levels, and how this body of work came to take shape in numerous formats including a film, a publication of new writing, an interview series and an exhibition.

Kohout and Meththananda are co-editors of Night Shifter – the publication aspect of the project which includes both fiction and non-fiction contributions from Phanuel Antwi, Ayesha Hameed, Chris James-Harvey, William Kherbek, Sophie Lapalu, Barney Lewer, Jeff Perkins, Jason Pine, Kate Porcheret, Georgina Voss, Vlad Vyazovskiy and Jan Horčík.

In this conversation they will delve into the myriad of directions the provocation of night shift labour has taken the contributing authors, such as exploring the work of Detroit music duo Drexciya, memories of queer nightlife in 1980s London, and the neurological and physiological benefits and dangers of not sleeping.

Martin Kohout (b. 1984, Czechoslovakia) is an artist and publisher, living and working in Berlin. His work is concerned with how developing communication technologies shape our relationships with others, time, space and the horizons of biography. His recent solo and group exhibitions include Riga Photography Biennial, Riga (2018); Polansky Gallery, Prague (2017); MAMbo, Bologna (2015); Futura, Prague (2015), Arcadia Missa, London (2014); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010). In 2011 Kohout founded TLTRPreß, a publishing house for artists and authors. Recent releases include Somewhere I’ve Never Been (2017) by Steph Kretowicz and The Great Outdoors (2017) by Monika Kalinauskaitė and Monika Janulevičiūtė. Kohout is the recipient of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award (2017).

Dan Meththananda (b. 1985, UK) is an artist, editor and writer, currently living and working in Paris. Prior to his work in art and writing, he studied mathematics at University College London, social sciences at Columbia University, and worked in media research for a major American television network.